Ironically, I planned on doing this post yesterday, but I got busy and did not have a chance to post this. The news about the promotion about Fernandez perfectly coincided with the timing of this post.

Before we dig into Jose Fernandez and his prospect profile, here is a quick look back at the top 20 list so far:

• #20-Mason Hope, RHP
• #19- Zack Cox, 3B
• #18- Tom Koehler, RHP
• #17- Kolby Copeland, OF
• #16- Austin Barnes, INF-C
• #15- Alfredo Silverio, OF
• #14- Avery Romero, INF
• #13- Derek Dietrich, INF
• #12- Mason Hope, SP
• #11- Adam Conley, SP
• #10- Jake Realmuto, C
• #9- Jose Urena, SP
• #8- Rob Brantly, C
• #7- Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
• #6- Marcell Ozuna, OF
• #5- Jake Marisnick, OF
• #4- Justin Nicolino, SP
• #3- Andrew Heaney, SP
• #2- Christian Yelich, OF

Feb 22, 2013; Jupiter, FL, USA; Miami Marlins player Jose Fernandez (78) poses for a picture during photo day at Roger Dean Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

1. Jose Fernandez

Drafted: 2011 1st round pick

Birthdate: 7/31/1992 (20) Height: 6’3″ Weight: 215 lbs.

Jose Fernandez has had the most interesting path to the majors of all the Marlins prospects. Jose Fernandez was once arrested and thrown in jail for attempting to flee Cuba with his mother. After a few failed attempts, Jose finally made it to America and the Marlins are sure glad. He is universally seen as a can’t miss, top 10 prospect in baseball.

The Marlins took Fernandez with the 14th overall pick in the 2011 amateur draft. Fernandez was seen as one of the more advanced high school arms in the draft and has already proven that with his quick promotion to the major leagues. 

Fernandez has an impressive repertoire of pitches. He has an above average fastball, which can reach 98 miles per hour. Fernandez also features two very good breaking pitches, in his curveball and slider. Both pitches project to be above-average.

Fernandez’s final pitch is his changeup, which is still a work in progress, but is currently major league average pitch. With his large frame and impressive arsenal of pitches, Fernandez should be a nightmare for opposing hitters to face if he can maintain his control.

Fernandez started the season in Low-A ball Greensboro, where he was almost unhittable. In his 79 innings with Greensboro, Fernandez struck out 99 hitters while walking just 18. He posted a 1.59 ERA and a impressive 1.78 FIP. He only allowed 51 hits in his 79 innings. This dominance of Low-A earned Jose a promotion to High-A ball later in the season.

When he got to High-A Jupiter, Fernandez continued to dominate hitters. Fernandez struck out 59 hitters in his 55 innings of work. He only walked 17 hitters, leading to an impressive 1.96 ERA and a 2.15 FIP. Once again, Fernandez showed the Miami Marlins and the baseball world that he is an elite level prospect.

Overall in 2012, Fernandez struck out 158 batters with just 35 walks in 134 combined innings. The Marlins have not had a pitching prospect as promising as Jose since Josh Beckett. Becket had an impressive run with the Marlins, including the 2003 World Series. The Marlins can only hope that Fernandez can repeat that success and stick with the Marlins longterm.

This is what prospect guru John Sickels had to say about Fernandez:

1) Jose Fernandez, RHP, Grade A: Borderline A-. Seems like a conclusive case to me. First class stuff, good command for a young power pitcher, strong sabermetric factors, outstanding performance in A-ball at age 19/20. He’s better than expected and he was expected to be pretty damn good to begin with.

Jose Fernandez will start the season in the majors, as I stated in the beginning. The Marlins expect Fernandez to stick in the majors and he will be limited to around 150-175 innings this season.

With shoulder injuries to Nathan Eovladi and Henderson Alvarez, the Marlins decided Jose Fernandez was their best option to fill in. There is little doubt that Fernandez will be able to hold his own in the major leagues, but the problem for many is that Fernandez’s service clock will get started unnecessarily. With Scott Boras as his agent, the Marlins are going to face a tough battle to keep Jose in Marlins orange as he hits arbitration.

July 20, 2012;Washington, D.C. USA; Baseball reflect in a glass case prior to the game between the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-US PRESSWIRE

Wednesday was a relatively quiet day for Baseball (at least in these parts), as close to the trade deadline as we are.  Rumors about Josh Johnson being dealt persist, although most of the bloviaters seem to think that the asking price is prohibitively astronomical. If JJ is still a Marlin on Wednesday, it will stifle some of the “here we go again” comments that have surfaced since the Hanley Ramirez deal. However, if he lands someplace like Texas, and we don’t get two or three all-stars and a top prospect in return, I think that knives will be sharpened all over town. Until that worst-case scenario actually plays out, I wish this guy’s editor would make him blow into a paper bag until he’s capable of writing something rational..

Oakland and Pittsburgh continue to ink their place as the Cinderella stories of this season. Both are on hot streaks of epic proportions, and are looking like they will embarrass preseason prognosticators. Like Jack Sparrow’s compass that points to what he wants the most, the compass that is George Will (always points to good baseball) has been pointing towards the West.  He’s been seen at a couple of A’s games, sitting in the always available Billy Beane seats.

In bizarre baseball news that rivaled the off-season kidnaping of Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, Vi Ripken was apparently carjacked near her Baltimore-area home.  Fortunately, she was found unharmed. Also related: On their return from a road trip, a number of the Rockies visited an Aurora hospital.  No need to go into why. Good on them for the visit.

Christopher Orlet penned an article  for American Spectator on the pros and cons of air conditioning. I suspect anyone who has endured a matinee game at SunLife stadium would find themselves firmly in the pro-A/C camp.  I got uncomfortably warm sitting in the sun at Safeco field in September, so I know where I stand.

Tim Lincecum continues to struggle on road trips.  Here’s a link to a video analysis of the mechanics that earned him a Cy Young a few years ago.  I’ve always liked watching him throw, and I hope he regains what he seems to have misplaced. Another rabbit hole to go down is to compare the mechanics of Josh Beckett from one year to the next. He’s got to be near the top of the heap when it comes to consistency in his mechanics and delivery. It’s also illuminating to look at PitchF/X data to see how consistent the release point is for good Major-League pitchers.

Yelich has posted a .319/.391/.571 line in 236 plate appearances with the Hammerheads. Yelich is showing off his power, with 10 home runs and an ISO of .252, and his speed with his 14 stolen bases. All that offense has culminated into an amazing wOBA of .441. Yelich has done nothing thus far to bring down his status of being one of the elite prospects in all of baseball, and for the Marlins.

However, he is no longer alone in being one of the top prospects for the Marlins, in fact, he is not even the best prospect for the Marlins anymore. Another prospect has overtaken Yelich, with an even bigger jump.

Before the season began, Baseball America did not even have the name Jose Fernandez in the top 100 list. Half way through the 2012 season, the Marlins first round draft pick last season has become a top 10 prospect in all of baseball, coming in at number 8. Fernandez made a huge leap from being an honorable mention, to being one of the games elite prospects, as well as the Marlins top prospects.

Fernandez is the franchise’s most-anticipated homegrown pitching prospect since Josh Beckett. That is high praise for a pitcher that will not turn 20 until the end of the month.

Starting the season with the Greensboro Grasshoppers, Fernandez was too good for his competition. In just 79 innings, Fernandez struck out 99 hitters, while only walking 19 hitters. After 14 starts, the Marlins decided that they had seen enough of Fernandez in Greensboro, the team decided to send him up to Jupiter to join Christian Yelich.

Fernandez has not pitched as well in Jupiter in two starts, as he has an ERA of 6.30, but a respectable FIP of 2.90. Fernandez has only pitched 10 innings in A+ ball so far, but he has allowed seven earned runs, striking out 9 hitters and walking 4.

While he has not performed up to his capability with the Hammerheads yet, it has only been two starts and Fernandez is becoming a intriguing prospect for the Marlins. He has now become the best prospect in the Marlins system, which slowly and gradually is improving.

The list only includes the top 50 prospects, but if it were to be drawn out further, there is a good chance that Marcell Ozuna and an outside chance of Adam Conley joining Yelich and Fernandez on the top 100 list. That is a huge improvement for the Marlins team that had only one prospect on the list to begin the season.

Both of the Marlins two top prospects figure to make an impact of some kind by late 2013 and early 2014. Both will become pernament fixtures with the big league team once they reach the big leagues.

You can also catch both at the MLB Futures All-Star game this Sunday at 5 PM EST on ESPN. Yelich will be swinging for the USA team, while Fernandez will be pitching for the World Team. Hopefully the two cross paths and get to face off against each other!

Here is a look at the full list of the top 50 prospects, according to Baseball America:

Clipped from: www.baseballamerica.com (share this clip)

June 11, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Josh Johnson (55) throws during the first inning against the Boston Red Sox at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Sometimes, when you’re stuck in the middle of the wrong kind of streak, you start thinking about what you can do to shake the curse. Think of the lengths that caddy Romeo Posar (Cheech Marin)went to to shake up Roy McAvoy (Kevin Costner) in Tin Cup; moving his loose change to the other pocket, etc. Ultimately, what Cup had to do was relax and clear his mind.

Maybe opening the roof last night was the trick.  Maybe Josh Johnson channeled Nuke LaLoosh and was wearing his girlfriend’s garter belt under his uni. Most likely, however, is that he was able to relax and trust his arm and his mechanics.

Either way, he had an outstanding performance last night, limiting the visiting Red Sox to one run in seven innings.  Giving up one earned run and one walk, he fanned seven, moving his ERA to 4.27 for the season. His fastball was on the high side of his average, tapping 95, and with good movement.

Fortunately, he had run support early in the game.  A leadoff triple from Jose Reyes and a sac. fly from Donovan Solano started a three-run first inning when Reyes scored.  Giancarlo Stanton looped a Texas-Leaguer to center field, followed by Logan Morrison belting a line drive to right field. Heads-up baserunning from Giancarlo Stanton tallied the second run on an Adrian Gonzalez bobble. Morrison crossed the plate on a right-field single by Gaby Sanchez.

John Buck opened the second inning with a single, and was sacrificed over to third by Josh Johnson and Jose Reyes. A base hit by Donovan Solano drove in the fourth and final run for the Marlins.

After the early-inning shelling, Josh Beckett demonstrated his precise, consistent pitching to hold the Fish to the four runs from the first two innings, ending his outing with three earned runs, one walk and five strikeouts after seven innings.

The Marlins sent in Steve Cishek for a scoreless eighth.  He retired the first two batters before giving up a base hit to Scott Podsednik, and ended the inning on a soft grounder from Dustin Pedroia.  Heath Bell came in for the ninth-inning save, his thirteenth of the season.   Despite a leadoff walk to Adrian Gonzalez, Bell struck out the next three batters: David Ortiz, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Kevin Youkilis. Game over.

This afternoon, left-hander Clay Buchholz squares off against righty Mark Buehrle. Buchholz brings a 6-2 record with a 5.77 ERA to Buehrle’s 5-6, 3.49 record. With the six-loss streak put to bed and behind them, the Marlins should be fired up and ready to put the bats to work.

Prediction: 6-2 Marlins, with no Red Sox runs after the third inning. Also, the home run feature will light up for either Hanley Ramirez or Giancarlo Stanton (although it would  be nice to see Gaby notch a “welcome home” dinger).

The Marlins are now 7-30 over the past 37 June games in the past two seasons. While the Marlins have struggled, the team still is positioned five games behind the division leading Washington Nationals. Now is not the time to panic if you are a Miami Marlins fans.

The first game of the Marlins-Red Sox series will be broadcasted on ESPN on Monday night. Yes, it seemed like a mistake to me as well and I still believe it might be one, but just do not say anything and we may actually get away with it!

As usual, to preview the series, I had a quick chat with a Fansided writer of the opposing teams site. Over the past few days, I had an opportunitiy to chat it up with Derek Stykalo, the editor of BoSox Injection. Derek and his staff do an excellent job on their site, if you ever get a chance, please do check them out.

Here is a look at our chat:

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